Timeline

2006-2007: The Huskies played 35 games with a record of 13-22-0. They placed 6th overall and 4th in their league within the Gold Division. Seven Bridges Ice Arena in Woodridge, IL was the Huskies home rink. The roster consisted of 15 forwards, 8 defensemen, and 3 goaltenders. The Huskies were coached in 2006 by Willis Griffin. The Huskies lost in the Alumni game 7-9 but came back from a large deficit from the first half of the game to pull in closer to the the Alumni.

2004-2005: The Huskies played 44 games with a record of 29-14-1. They placed 1st overall and 3rd in their league within the Gold Division. Seven Bridges Ice Arena in Woodridge, IL was the Huskies home rink. The roster consisted of 14 forwards, 6 defensemen, and 3 goaltenders. Huskies also got a new coach, Nick Lundin.

2003-2004: Huskies ranked 4th in the Division 3 Conference. Ranked 4th overall in the league. Overall league record was 10-11-4 and Division 2 Conference record was 8-4-2. Rockford, IL was the home of the Huskies.

2002-2003: The head coach was Bill Thorn Sr. During the playoffs the Huskies had to play Palmer who had beaten them twice that season by scores of 8-1. The mindset and play of the Huskies was focused and up to the challenge that appeared as an easy win for Palmer.  In a shocker NIU beat Palmer 9-4. On to the final game versus UMSL the Huskies fell behind by three goals in the first period. However, with confidence and poise especially after beating Palmer, they rallied in the final two periods and won in a champion’s fashion winning 6-4. The celebration went from the ice to the locker room where coach Thorn gave a moving victory speech, then on to the bus ride home, and eventually to a party after the bus ride beginning around 3 a.m. Rockford, IL was the home of the Huskies.
 
2001-2002: The Huskies finished 12-9-1 in 5th place for the regular season. They did not make the playoffs. Rockford, IL was the home of the Huskies. This information was provided by Bill Thorn. Thank you.

2000-2001: The Huskies finished 17-3-1; 2nd place for the regular season. Playoffs: Semi; NIU 4 - UMSL 0 Finals; NIU 8 Palmer 2. Huskies were the champions in 2001-2002. Rockford, IL was the home of the Huskies. This information was provided by Bill Thorn. Thank you.

1999-2000: Huskies finish first in the league and Rockford, IL was the home of the Huskies.

1998-1999: Rockford, IL was the home of the Huskies.
 
1997-1998: Fox Valley Ice Arena is the home of the Huskies. The Huskies take the number one spot in the league. Huskies win their first bid to the Nationals at Rutgers University and finishes 12th in the nation. Huskies also finish in first place in their league.
 
1996-1997: The Huskies moved from the Rockford Ice House to the Fox Valley Ice Arena. Eric Schneider an alumni and ex-D1 player at the University of Illinois at Chicago becomes head coach. The Huskies take the number one spot in the league.
 
1995-1996: Part of the Illinois Wisconsin Collegiate Hockey Association. The Rockford Ice House was the home of the Huskies.
 
1994-1995: Part of the Illinois Wisconsin Collegiate Hockey Association. The Rockford Ice House was the home of the Huskies.

1980-1984: The following information was provided by Pat Atkinson:

My time at NIU was 80-84. I was a player on the team starting in fall of 1980. In January of 1981, we were supposed to play two road games against University of Illinois at their sprawling old rink in Urbana. On Friday night we started with about 12-13 players, knowing that 2 of them would not be at the Saturday game because they had to go back to the Chicago suburbs for a wedding. In the 2nd period a massive fight broke out….not our fault of course, where 3 of our players were tossed out with game suspensions. That meant we were only going to have 7 or 8 players. We were OK with that. We went into town that night for a cocktail or two. We actually ended up walking into a bar that seemed suspiciously void of any females. As it turned out, this band of grubby, thug-like guys were welcomed in….almost too anxiously. We had stumbled into the only gay bar in town. Needless to say the boys were speechless…..for the first time in their lives.

After we RAN out of there, we started to think about finding a place to stay. Since none of us had a pot to piss in, we sought out and found the TKE house. I was pledging TKEs at NIU and 4-5 of our players were TKEs. The rule in fraternities is that whenever a brother from another school comes to visit, you are supposed to open your house up for them to stay and feel comfortable. When we rang the doorbell with 11 guys needing a place to stay, a scared little guy answered the door, listened to our story, and quickly dismissed the idea of them hosting this crew. He claimed that he was alone in the house (on a Friday night) and that he couldn’t authorize letting us stay. We were considering whether or not we should just slap him down and come on in. Ultimately we looked at each other and said, OK, we have 11 guys with no where to stay, 3 are suspended for fighting, we’re tired and beaten up, what should we do? The answer, jump on the road at 11pm and drive 3 hours home. That’s what we did.

It wasn’t until a week or so later that we were called into the OCR (office of campus recreation) and told that U of I had filed a financial complaint against us for blowing off the game and not giving them any notice. In fact they had sold hundreds of seats, had referees there and had their team on the ice warming up, not knowing that we were all sitting at McCabes and the Jungle back in DeKalb. Because of that incident…..and a few other things (like having a keg of beer on a bus) we were zero-funded for the remainder of the season and future play.

The next fall I was handed the reins to the defunct team and asked to see what I could do to revive the program. After months of negotiations, promises, compromises, and a slew of improved oversight mechanisms put into place, we were granted authority and budget to play the 1982-83 season, and did so without a problem. We had a great time and I’ll always remember the U of I trip that almost permanently ended the hockey program at NIU.